The present invention relates to an electrical connector, and particularly to an electrical connector having contacts which are easily manufactured by a simple mold at low costs.
A conventional electrical connector is disclosed in Taiwan Patent Application No. 85218083 as shown in FIG. 1. The electrical connector comprises a dielectric housing 70 and a plurality of contacts 72 received in the housing 70. Each contact 72 comprises a contacting section 720, an engaging section 721 and a connecting tail 722. Each of the engaging sections 721 and each of the connecting tails 722 of the contacts 72 are different thereby making it difficult to form the contacts in a simple mold. A multiple mold is usually required to fabricate the contacts 72 thereby complicating manufacture of the contacts and increasing costs thereof.
Another conventional electrical connector is disclosed in Taiwan Patent Application No. 85217217 as shown in FIG. 2. The electrical connector comprises a dielectric housing 8, four contacts 9 received in the housing 8, and a metallic shell 80 enclosing the housing 8. The housing 8 defines four vertically aligned receiving passageways 82 for receiving the corresponding contacts 9 therein. The receiving passageways 82 are shaped differently thereby complicating the structure of a mold used for insert molding the housing 8. Each contact 9 has a contacting section 91, an engaging section 92 and a connecting tail 93. Four positioning slots 83 are defined in the housing 8 below the receiving passageways 82 for positioning the connecting tails 93 and separating the connecting tails 93 from the connecting tails 93 of the adjacent contacts 9.
The engaging sections 92 of the contacts 9 are bent and have different widths corresponding to the receiving passageways 82 of the housing 8. The connecting sections 93 of the contacts 9 have different lengths corresponding to the receiving passageways 82 of the housing 8. Thus, the contacts 9 are manufactured by different individual molds, or a multiple mold. If the contacts 9 are formed by different individual molds, the production rate of the electrical connector will be very low and manufacturing costs of the electrical connector will be greatly increased. If the contacts 9 are formed by a mold assembly, the multiple mold may be complicated and expensive thereby increasing manufacturing costs of the electrical connector.
Therefore, an improved contact as well as an improved manufacturing method the contact is required to increase production rates and to decrease costs thereof.